Jump to full article: Melbourne (Vic) Herald Sun (au), 2010-01-29
Author: Steve Lewis and staff
Intro: SMOKERS could be slugged with higher prices to help pay for Tony Abbott's response to Kevin Rudd's climate change policy.
The Coalition will challenge Kevin Rudd's Emissions Trading Scheme next week with its own plans to fight climate change.
One proposal is to raise the rate of tobacco excise by about 12.5 per cent, to raise billions of dollars for environmental measures. This would increase the price of cigarettes by 60c a packet.
The idea was embraced by ex-Liberal leader Malcolm Turnbull last year as he looked for revenue to oppose Labor's Budget plans to restrict access to the private health insurance rebate.
Lifting the rate of excise was also endorsed by the Government's pre
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